1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing method and a substrate processing apparatus for performing exposing processing and developing processing for a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate, an LCD substrate, or the like which is coated with a resist solution.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the photolithography technology in the fabrication process of a semiconductor device, a resist is coated on the surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer), the coated resist is exposed to a predetermined pattern and developed, and thus a predetermined pattern of resist film is formed. A series of processing described above is performed by an apparatus in which an aligner is connected to a coating and developing system.
A substrate carrier C housing 25 substrates, for example, semiconductor wafers are placed on a stage which is a substrate carrier transfer section by an automatic transfer robot. A wafer is then taken out of the carrier C by a delivery arm, delivered to a main transfer arm of the coating and developing system, and coated with a resist. Thereafter, the wafer is transferred to the aligner via an interface section to be exposed, and then returned to the coating and developing system to be developed. The wafer which has completed a series of processing is returned into the original carrier C by a route reverse to the one used when being transferred into the system. The carrier C into which all the wafers are returned after completing processing is transferred to a next system or a carrier stocker by the automatic transfer robot.
Incidentally, the fabrication process of a semiconductor device is performed in a clean room in order to prevent adhesion of particles. But, the clean room is expensive, so that it is required to lay out processing apparatus efficiently. In the aforesaid prior art, however, there are some disadvantages that a moving space for the automatic transfer robot which takes charge of transfer of substrates between apparatus needs to be provided in the clean room, and that a wafer or a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) is recently increasing in size, thus causing an increase in its moving space, which makes it difficult to realize efficient layout.
The present invention is made in view of the aforesaid disadvantages, and its object is to provide an apparatus of which the occupation space of the entire system including a substrate carrier transfer mechanism corresponding to an automatic transfer robot is small, thereby efficiently utilizing a space in a clean room.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of easily controlling the delivery of a substrate carrier between the substrate carrier transfer mechanism and a substrate carrier transfer section.
To attain these objects, a substrate processing apparatus of the present invention comprises a processing section for performing processing for a substrate, a substrate carrier transfer section into/out of which a substrate carrier holding a plurality of substrates is carried, and a substrate transfer mechanism for taking an unprocessed substrate out of the substrate carrier carried into the substrate carrier transfer section to deliver it to the processing section, and for receiving a processed substrate from the processing section to deliver it into a substrate carrier mounted on the substrate carrier transfer section, the substrate carrier transfer section including means for moving the position of the substrate carrier between a first position at which the substrate carrier is carried to/from the outside and a second position at which a substrate in the substrate carrier is delivered to/from said substrate transfer mechanism.
According to the aforesaid invention, even if the timing at which the substrate carrier transfer mechanism reaches the substrate carrier transfer section and the timing at which all substrates in the substrate carrier complete processing and are returned to the substrate carrier are not concurrent, for example, the substrate carrier and the substrates can be delivered smoothly, thus obtaining high throughput.
Further, a substrate processing apparatus of the present invention comprises a substrate carrier transfer section, into/out of which a substrate carrier holding a plurality of substrates is carried, including cooling means, and a processing section for applying a resist onto an unprocessed substrate delivered from a substrate carrier carried into the substrate carrier transfer section.
According to the aforesaid configuration, a substrate can be previously cooled prior to a cooling process of the substrate which is performed before resist coating, thereby reducing substrate processing time. Moreover, cooling processing before resist coating is performed by the cooling means of the substrate carrier transfer section, which makes it possible to remove the configuration of a cooling unit where cooling processing before resist coating is performed from the processing section, whereby an reduction in size of the apparatus is realized.
Furthermore, a substrate processing method of the present invention comprises the steps of carrying a substrate carrier holding a plurality of unprocessed substrates from the outside into a first position of a substrate carrier transfer section, interchanging positions of substrate carriers between the substrate carrier placed in the first position, and a substrate carrier holding processed substrates and placed in a second position of the substrate carrier transfer section, taking the unprocessed substrate out of the substrate carrier moved to the second position to transfer it to a processing section, subsequently processing the substrate in the processing section, returning the substrate processed in the processing section into the substrate carrier placed in the second position, thereafter interchanging positions of substrate carriers between the substrate carrier placed in the second position and a substrate carrier holding unprocessed substrates and placed in the first position, and carrying the substrate carrier placed in the first position out to the outside.
According to the aforesaid configuration, even if the timing at which the substrate carrier transfer mechanism reaches the substrate carrier transfer section and the timing at which all substrates in the substrate carrier complete processing and are returned to the substrate carrier are not concurrent, for example, the substrate carrier and the substrates can be delivered smoothly, thus obtaining high throughput.
These objects and still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.